Doctor Explains Conor McGregor Being Injured Before the Fight

Questions about whether Conor McGregor entered his UFC return fight with an existing knee injury have spread rapidly, but sports medicine physician and YouTuber Dr. Brian Sutterer says the available footage does not strongly support that theory.

McGregor suffered a knee injury just over a minute into his July 11 fight against Max Holloway, ending his first appearance in five years by technical knockout. Since then, clips showing him stumbling while removing a shoe, visiting a pain clinic, and moving before the fight have been examined for possible warning signs.

Sutterer said a pre-existing injury was certainly possible, especially because professional fighters often carry some level of physical damage into competition. However, after reviewing the newer footage, he believes there is more evidence against a serious prior knee injury than evidence supporting one.

“Bottom line, yes, absolutely possible,” Sutterer said. “Is the data convincing that he was injured? No, I don’t think so.”

Exact Diagnosis Still Has Not Been Confirmed

Sutterer noted that McGregor has not publicly revealed the exact diagnosis, even though enough time had passed for him to undergo an MRI and receive a clear medical answer.

McGregor wrote on social media about surgery, rehabilitation, and eventually returning to martial arts practice, but he did not identify which structure in the knee had been damaged.

Sutterer found that silence somewhat unusual, particularly because the difference between an ACL tear and a meniscus injury would dramatically change the likely recovery timeline.

For now, he remains hopeful that McGregor suffered a lateral meniscus tear rather than a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

The distinction matters because a meniscus injury may require only weeks or several months of recovery, depending on how it is treated, while an ACL reconstruction could keep McGregor out for roughly a year.

Without a confirmed diagnosis, every outside analysis remains an educated guess. Still, the fight footage gives doctors several visible clues to examine.

Fight Footage Does Not Show a Classic ACL Shift

Sutterer compared McGregor’s injury with footage of fighter Carlos Ulberg suffering a knee injury.

In a clear ACL tear, he explained, the shin bone may briefly shift forward relative to the thigh bone before snapping back into place. That movement, sometimes visible in slow motion, can be a strong sign that the ACL has failed.

In Ulberg’s footage, Sutterer pointed to the calf and upper shin visibly moving as the fighter planted his leg.

McGregor’s injury did not show the same pattern.

“We had every angle to see it, and we don’t see it,” Sutterer said.

As McGregor landed, his shin did not appear to shift forward, and there was no obvious recoil in the calf. His leg also did not rotate inward in the way often seen during a non-contact ACL injury.

Sutterer cautioned that the absence of those signs does not completely rule out an ACL tear. Some ACL injuries happen without a dramatic visual shift, but the footage did not contain the features that would make him immediately confident in that diagnosis.

That makes a meniscus injury more plausible in his view, particularly if McGregor landed, twisted, or compressed the knee in a way that caused torn tissue to become trapped inside the joint.

The Shoe-Removal Clip Raises Some Suspicion

One of the main clips supporting the pre-existing injury theory showed McGregor removing a shoe before the fight.

Sutterer said McGregor appeared to stumble slightly while balancing and seemed reluctant to place weight on his right leg for a moment.

“That to me does suggest somebody who’s a little bit apprehensive of putting weight on their right leg,” he said.

Viewed by itself, the clip could support the idea that McGregor was already protecting the knee.

However, short moments of awkward balance can be misleading, especially when a person is pulling off a shoe while standing. The video may show discomfort, but it does not establish what caused it or whether the problem was serious.

This is where sports injury analysis can easily become overconfident. Once viewers know an athlete was later hurt, almost every earlier movement can begin to look suspicious.

Sutterer acknowledged the shoe clip as the strongest point in favor of an existing problem, but he said it was outweighed by what McGregor did during his warm-up.

Warm-Up Footage Shows a Stable Knee

Video from the locker room showed McGregor jumping, kicking, landing on one leg, and pushing explosively through the right side before entering the cage.

Sutterer said those movements did not resemble the behavior of someone dealing with a significant acute knee injury.

McGregor repeatedly landed on the right leg, used it to generate force, and showed no obvious hesitation. He did not look down at the knee, reach for it, or alter his movements in a way that suggested he was protecting it.

“This does not look to me like somebody who’s dealing with a right knee injury,” Sutterer said.

The warm-up included some of the same demanding actions that would normally aggravate meniscus or ligament damage, including jumping, twisting, kicking, and single-leg landing.

Sutterer said it would be difficult to believe McGregor had entered the fight with a fresh ACL tear while still showing that level of stability and control.

The warm-up does not rule out a small or painless meniscus injury, but it makes a major pre-existing injury less convincing.

In his view, the locker-room footage looks much better than the shoe-removal video looks bad.

Pain Clinic Visit Is Not Proof

Another widely shared clip reportedly showed McGregor walking into a pain management clinic four days before the fight.

Sutterer said the video did not show a clear limp or any obvious mechanical problem.

“You can’t watch this video and say anything clear and obvious is going on,” he said.

He also noted that pain clinics offer many kinds of treatment, and it was not even clear what care McGregor may have been receiving or whether the visit involved his knee.

Fighters regularly deal with soreness, old injuries, recovery treatments, and pain management before major events. Simply being seen near a clinic does not prove that McGregor had a serious injury related to what happened in the fight.

Sutterer also disagreed with UFC president Dana White’s suggestion that a pre-existing problem would have been noticed because millions of people watched McGregor’s pre-fight appearances.

A meniscus injury may cause little trouble while walking or standing, he explained, but become painful during jumping, twisting, or pivoting.

The absence of a visible limp during a faceoff therefore proves very little.

A Previous Meniscus Injury Remains Possible

Sutterer said McGregor’s age, long fighting career, and history of physical trauma make it reasonable to assume that the knee may already have had some wear or older damage.

A previous meniscus tear could have been completely painless before the fight, then worsened when McGregor landed awkwardly.

One possibility is that an older tear progressed into a larger “bucket-handle” tear, where part of the meniscus folds into the joint and prevents normal movement.

That could explain how McGregor appeared functional during the warm-up but suddenly could not continue after one landing.

Sutterer strongly doubted that McGregor entered the cage with a newly torn ACL.

“We would not have seen him do that warm-up,” he said. “We would not have seen that much stability or that much function this acutely after an ACL injury.”

The only realistic pre-existing problem, in his opinion, would be some degree of meniscus damage that had not yet seriously limited McGregor.

That is a much narrower claim than the broader online theory that McGregor entered the fight already badly injured.

Recovery Could Range From Weeks to a Year

The eventual timeline depends almost entirely on what surgeons found.

If the injury involved a small torn section of meniscus that was simply removed, Sutterer said McGregor could potentially return to sparring in about six weeks.

Doctors usually prefer to repair the meniscus by stitching the torn tissue back together, particularly on the outer side of the knee, because the structure helps with stability and weight distribution.

A repair would likely require roughly three to six months of recovery.

If the injury turns out to be an ACL tear, McGregor could face 10 to 12 months of rehabilitation, meaning a return might not happen until the following summer or fall.

Sutterer also warned that recovery cannot be judged only by the calendar.

McGregor is an older athlete with years of accumulated damage, a previous major leg fracture, and a long history of demanding training. Even if he returns, he may not regain the speed, confidence, or physical durability he once had.

“It would not be surprising if we do not ever see a 100% Conor McGregor return,” Sutterer said.

That does not mean McGregor cannot fight again. His name alone would make another appearance a major event, even if he returned below his previous level.

Sutterer believes one more fight is realistic, and perhaps two, but expects it would be difficult for McGregor to rebuild a long competitive run at this stage of his career.

For now, the strongest conclusion is also the least dramatic one. McGregor may have carried some older meniscus damage into the fight, but the footage does not convincingly show that he entered the cage with a serious active knee injury.

Until McGregor or his medical team confirms the diagnosis, the shoe stumble, clinic visit, and warm-up clips will remain pieces of an incomplete picture rather than proof of a hidden injury.